Building Prayer Altars / 01

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“Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come

near to me.” So all the people came near
to him. And he repaired the altar of the
LORD that was broken down.”
1 Kings 18:30

All Scriptures taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Building Prayer Altars (2016)

Copyright © 2016 by Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah)

Published by Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other
electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles, critical reviews, publications
and certain other non commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
 Building Prayer Altars / 03

PREFACE

T his booklet is based on the book “Prayer Altars” by John Mulinde

and Mark Daniel, published by World Trumpet Mission Publishing,
Orlando, FL, USA. It is my summary of the teachings and lessons in that
book plus additional insights we have been learning in our church as
we take this journey together. I have also used significant parts of the
“Prayer Altar” booklet developed by Pastor Doctor Lew Lee Choo of
SIB KL to whom I am eternally grateful. The purpose of this booklet is to
provide a basic understanding of what it means to build prayer altars in
the Singaporean context.

There’s no one right way of “doing prayer altars” but there are principles
and suggestions presented here that work and are based firmly in
Scripture. This booklet helps to answer some of the common questions
such as “what is a prayer altar?” and “How does a prayer altar differ
from my normal time of prayer?”

I humbly submit these chapters in the hope that they help in answering
your questions and help you build strong and effective prayer altars here
in Singapore that will transform you, this nation and launch Singapore
into its destiny as an Antioch of Asia.

Pastor Tim Gibson

Pastor of English 9am Service
Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah)
www.revtimgibson.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ..................................................................................... 05

Part 1:Why Prayer Altars? .............................................................. 07

Part 2: Prayer Altars Vs Prayer Meetings ........................................ 17

Part 3: What are Prayer Altars? ........................................................ 23

Part 4: Prayer Altar Strategy ............................................................ 29

Part 5: Pushing Back the Darkness ................................................ 39

Part 6: Ushering in the Presence of God ......................................... 47

Part 7: The Prayer Altar Lifestyle ................................................... 53

Summary ......................................................................................... 66
 Building Prayer Altars / 05

INTRODUCTION

T he building of prayer altars is not a program. It is a

necessity for Christians and for Christian communities to
live victoriously and in the purposes of God. This booklet aims
to help you on your journey of understanding what they truly
are so that you will build them to be strong and effective.

The purpose of this booklet is to show the Biblical basis of

prayer altars and how they differ from ordinary prayer times.
It outlines the importance and power of prayer altars and how
they fit into God’s strategy of pushing back the Kingdom of
Darkness and ushering in the Kingdom of Light. This booklet
shows that the prayer altar is a lifestyle and not just a time
and place and it reveals how the prayer altar transforms people
and places. In a nutshell it aims to give practical help and
understanding on how to live the prayer altar lifestyle in your
life, your family, your church, your school, your workplace
and your nation.

The purpose for us in Singapore is about building altars of

prayer where we have a deep walk with God and our spirits
are transformed from fear to faith, from being lukewarm
to burning with passionate love and from being people of
convenience to people of commitment. We’ll be revived so
that our sacrifices keep the altar burning day and night and, as
we offer ourselves on that altar, it ignites the fire of God within
us and we become that pillar of fire that carries Him into our
homes, our communities, our nation and into the nations. It is
this fire that will drive out the darkness in our land and usher
in His Kingdom.
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This booklet will help you see the need to build prayer altars
all over Singapore so that the:

1. Priority in our lives is to walk in His ways, wisdom and

will.
2. Presence of God pushes away the darkness.
3. People’s lives (Family, church and marketplace) are
transformed.
4. Pattern of our lives and churches will be Jesus.
5. Prayer lifestyles are Effective, Engaging and Empowering.
6. Prevailing priesthood of the church will have authority
over the society and land in Singapore.
7. Prophetic destiny of Singapore as an Antioch of Asia will
be fulfilled.
 Building Prayer Altars / 07

PART 1

WHY PRAYER
ALTARS?
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T he words “prayer altar” can be understood from meaning

a dry, stone monument in a cold and dead church, to a real
place of connecting with a god or with our ancestors where we
make offerings and prayers.

However, we need to realize that the prayer altar originated with

God Himself and, though it has been abused and misunderstood,
it still has a proper place in Christian life today.

Because of the misuse of altars in the past many Christians feel

the altar is an Old Testament relic that has no place in our lives
today and so has been replaced by largely ineffective times of
prayer, whether individual or corporate.

As we shall see, prayer altars are the BEST way as they are…

Biblical
Engaging
Strategic
Transforming

Prayer Altars Are Biblical

The word ‘altar’ occurs 402 times in the Old Testament and 23
times in the New Testament and means “place of slaughter”.
As the Bible is God’s inspired Word to us (2 Timothy 3:16)
we need to look and see what relevance it ascribes to the altar
for us as New Testament Christians. Just because there are
counterfeit altars today it does not mean that we have to throw
out the real thing!
 Building Prayer Altars / 09

The following chart shows the history of the altar through the
Bible…

Point One: The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is the first place where God dwells with
man and is, as such, the first temple, possibly with walls around
it and a gate in the east with guarding Cherubim (Genesis 3:24).
It is in the garden that God first spoke destiny over Adam and
Eve as we see in Genesis 1:27-28:

27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God
He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God
blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.”

When God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden, He
gave him dominion over the earth and its resources. But the
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entry of sin changed all that. The devil deceived mankind into
surrendering our God given legal rights of the earth to him.
The devil has no legal rights over the earth so he must get it by
deception.

When sin entered the world, man was banished from the
presence of God and only allowed back through sacrifice.
Indeed, God initiated altar sacrifice by slaying an animal to
clothe Adam and Eve after they sinned (Genesis 3:21) so they
could be accepted back into His presence and purposes.

Point Two: Altars of the Godly line

Adam and Eve would have taught their children to build
altars to God to enter once again into His presence. However,
only Abel offered a blood sacrifice as shown by God and was
accepted back into His presence and purposes. Cain offered
the fruit of a cursed ground, the work of His own hands and
was rejected, hence showing us the difference between true
and false altars.

After this we see the building of true prayer altars through the
Godly line from Enosh where “men began to call on the name
of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26) until Noah (Genesis 8:20). This
then continued from the time of Abraham until Jacob where
they built altars to God and walked in His ways (Gen 35:11-
15).
 Building Prayer Altars / 11

Points Three to Five: Moses’ Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple

and the Second Temple
“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among
them.” Exodus 25:8

From Moses onwards God showed the blueprint of His Temple,

His dwelling place that His people could enter through sacrifice
to be a house of “prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). It was
the place where the manifest presence of God would come
(Leviticus 9:23-24; 2 Chronicles 7:1).

Point Six: Jesus and the Cross

Jesus Himself came as the fulfillment (a rabbinical term
meaning “correct interpretation”) of the Old Testament Law
(Matthew 5:17) including the Ceremonial Law concerning the
Temple (John 2:21) and the Cross became the ultimate altar of
sacrifice for the sins of mankind (Hebrews 13:10) with Jesus
as the ultimate sacrifice (John 1:29). This made the way for us
to come back into the presence of God, only through Christ
(Romans 5:1-2).

By Christ’s death and resurrection Satan’s plans to deny us of

both our rights and our access to God was defeated at Calvary.
Through the blood of Christ, we have been reconciled to God,
have gained the legal right to stand before Him and have an open
heaven (Ephesians 2:13). We have been given all authority to
wage warfare against spiritual forces of darkness over our land
so as to bring souls into His Kingdom (Ephesians 6:11-12).
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“18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority
has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 28:18-19

The basis of our prayers is the finished work of Christ on the

Cross, the ultimate altar…

“We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle
have no right to eat.” Hebrews 13:10.

Point Seven: Christians are the Temple of the Holy Spirit

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not
your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19

The early Christians, after Pentecost, lived the altar lifestyle

(Acts 2:46) and so should we. Altar language continues
throughout the New Testament, showing we now have a
spiritual altar not a physical one, offering up spiritual sacrifices
(Hebrew 13:10-16). Indeed, if our body is the temple then our
heart is the altar where we must daily apply the ultimate altar,
the Cross, as Jesus said in Luke 9:23.

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
Me.”
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So, as we have seen from Scripture, prayer altars continue now

as a spiritual fulfillment of the physical pattern given in the
Old Testament. Indeed, the Old Testament Temple is a “copy
and shadow of the heavenly” one (Hebrews 8:5) and so all Old
Testament references to altars are useful in giving us spiritual
principles and patterns for prayer altars today.

Prayer Altars Are Engaging

Often our prayer times can become dry and sluggish, but true
prayer altars engage us so that the time flies past and we are
filled with great excitement. Prayer altars include set times
with God in a set place (Daniel had three such times a day
coinciding with the times of the morning, noon and evening
Temple Sacrifices – Daniel 6:10) but also carries over into
every aspect of our lives 24/7.

Prayer altars are simple on paper but require much more

commitment and sacrifice than other types of prayer. Prayer
altars engage us in God’s presence, seeking His face and not
His hand, through deep times of soaking in His Word, deep
hallowing of His name, deep repentance and consecration and
deep intercession, spiritual warfare and declaration. These
times can last much longer than normal prayer times but will
seem to finish in no time at all as they engage us deeply in
meaningful and fulfilling times of prayer.
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Prayer Altars Are Strategic

Raising prayer altars is the enactment on earth of what Christ

has gained for us in the heavenly realms. It is claiming back
our legal right to carry on God’s original plan for every nation
to come into their prophetic destiny (Acts 17:26). Prayer altars
ensures our part in this destiny.

Prayer altars bring all the elements of spiritual disciplines

together under God’s big purpose and brings us to the place
of being part of God’s united network in our nation and the
nations. This network’s purpose is to push back the darkness
and possess people and places for His Kingdom. It connects
us together with others building prayer altars and plugs us, all
with our own gifts and callings, into the bigger picture of what
God is doing in our nation and beyond.

Prayer altars form spiritual gateways through which heaven

comes to earth, His Kingdom comes, His will is done on earth
as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

Prayer Altars Are Transforming

True prayer altars bring transformation to people and places,

lives and lands.

They transform our lives so that we become more passionate and

hungry for God’s presence as we hallow His name, more holy as
we repent and consecrate our lives and more compassionate for
others as we identify with them in repentance and intercession.
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Through the prayer altar lifestyle, we bear more spiritual fruit,

enter more into our personal calling and destiny and become
more active and effective for His Kingdom and not ours.

Prayer altars also transform the places and lands we live in

by transforming the atmosphere to be full of God’s presence
(joy, peace etc.). This leads to many more people coming to the
Lord and brings the land (family, church, school, workplace,
nation) into God’s destiny and purposes.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble

themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Personal prayer altars transform our life.

Family prayer altars transform our families.
Church prayer altars transform our Church.
Marketplace prayer altars transform our workplace.
National prayer altars transform our nation.

That’s why prayer altars are the BEST!

They are…

Biblical
Engaging
Strategic
Transforming
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When Jesus taught His

disciples to pray He said
to them, “When you pray,
say: “Father, hallowed
be Your name, Your
Kingdom come, Your will
be done on earth as it is
in heaven.”